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Constitution Day

Thomas Jefferson Was Right: We Need a New Constitution Every Generation
5 PM
203 Diana, The Diana Center

Americans traditionally pride themselves on the fact that theirs is the world's oldest written constitution. Thomas Jefferson, however, thought that each generation needed to create its own constitution and that any constitution that outlasted the generation that created it was invalid. His ideas on this score have never really caught on with Americans, and in this lecture on the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, Professor Herbert Sloan will explore how it was that Jefferson arrived at his ideas about constitutions and why they have not won favor with most Americans, either in Jefferson's own lifetime or later on.

Herbert Sloan's work on Jefferson includes Principle and Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt (1995). He is a member of the editorial board of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson and a member of the advisory board of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.

Copies of the U.S. Constitition can be picked up at The Diana Center througout the day.